There are many types of manufacturing in which there is used lengths or rolls of tape, ribbon or similar material which are intermittently carried or pulled through a path of travel for operations to be performed thereon or thereby and in which it is desired that the material of each said length or roll be maintained in precise alignment widthwise during its movement through said path. For example, in the movement through a selected path of travel of a roll or length of tape or ribbon carrying a series or succession of decals whose transfer films are applied to a surface of each of a series or succession of dish-like articles to provide on said surfaces decorations of a high quality and pleasing appearance, it is necessary that said roll or length of material move through said path with precise widthwise alignment of the material in order to precisely and correspondingly apply each said transfer film to said surface of each of said series or succession of articles. For obvious economic reasons, it is also desirable that a single decal transfer film applying machine can be used, at different times, for different size articles to be decorated and for which purposes decal carrying tapes or ribbons of different widths, but corresponding to the different size articles, are employed. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a tape or ribbon guide roller assembly which is readily and rapidly adjustable for accommodating or guiding, at different times, tapes or ribbons of different widths for said precise widthwise alignment thereof in their movement through the assembly and, thereby, through paths of travel such as that mentioned.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an adjustable tape or ribbon guide roller assembly which is rapidly and readily adjustable to assure that, when tapes of different widths are at different times guided thereby, the centerline of the width of each of the tapes or ribbons are precisely aligned with a centerline extending about the periphery of the roller of the assembly midway between the ends of the roller.
Other objects and characteristic features of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.